Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja head the 37 Australians to feature in IPL auction

Instead of being one of the Australian players sweating if he will find a home in the Indian Premier League auction, Brad Hodge will have to make that call on many of his countrymen.

The still-formidable veteran was one of 38 Australians who nominated for this season's player auction, to be held on Saturday in Bangalore. Hodge has withdrawn because of his subsequent appointment as coach of Gujarat Lions, one of two new teams to feature in this year's elite domestic Twenty20 tournament.

The selection of Hodge, 41, is a significant recognition of how much he has impressed in recent years as a support coach in the Big Bash League while still playing. The other new team, Pune, plumped for Stephen Fleming, a two-time title winner with Chennai.

Shane Watson is expected to be among of the mostly highly sought Australian players in the auction. Saturday's auction will be the first time the all-rounder has been available for purchase since the first year, with his team Rajasthan and Chennai now beginning a two-year ban. Their places have been filled by Hodge's Lions, based in Rajkot, and Fleming's Rising Pune Supergiants.

Players who nominate for the auction set a base price for themselves. Watson, Mike Hussey, Mitch Marsh and Kane Richardson are among the top bracket whose base price is 20 million rupees ($A416,000). They are followed by Brad Haddin, James Pattinson and Cameron White for 15 million ($312,000).

There will be significant interest on a few of the Australians with a base price of 10 million: Aaron Finch, because he is Twenty20 captain, and Usman Khawaja, because of his dazzling form across all formats. Khawaja is yet to play in the IPL.

Advertisement

With the auction to start in mid-afternoon Australian time many players will be busy during it, playing in either Australia's second one-dayer against New Zealand or in the Sheffield Shield.

The biggest spenders at the auction will be Delhi and Hyderabad, who shed many of their players from last season in order to have, respectively, 371.5 million ($7.62 million) and 301.5 million ($6.19 million) available at the auction.